FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT NITISH KUMAR - PAGE 5

PATNA: Criticising Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for slamming Congress on special category status issue , the party said the matter was under consideration of the Centre and Planning Commission. "The Congress-led Centre has neither taken back the Raghuram Rajan committee report nor rejected it...the fact is that the Centre and the Planning Commission are yet to ponder over the report," Bihar Congress President Ashok Chaudhary said in a statement. Describing Kumar's statement of Centre's apathy on the issue as "baseless and humourous", the PCC chief said that it seemed the Chief Minister was trying to make it an issue for 2014 elections.

PATNA: Peeved at the denial of a second term in Rajya Sabha, senior JD(U ) leader Shivanand Tiwari today lashed out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for being 'arrogant' and said there was no place in the party for anyone who disagreed with Kumar. "Kumar is an arrogant person who believes in the mantra of 'I' ... There is no place in JD(U) for anyone who does not nod to the chief minister's views," Tiwari said in a rejoinder to state unit JD(U) chief Bashistha Narayan Singh.

MUMBAI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar arrived here this evening to attend centenary celebrations of his state, a day after MNS chief Raj Thackeray withdrew his threat to disrupt the event slated for tomorrow. Kumar will be the chief guest at the 'Bihar Shatabdi Samaroh Utsav' being organised at 'Somaiya Ground' in a city suburb tomorrow evening. Kumar landed at the airport here from Patna amid tight security ahead of the planned event that had got embroiled in a controversy after MNS took exception to his remark that nobody could prevent him from visiting Mumbai and that he did not require a visa to visit the city.

NEW DELHI: BJP plans to intensify its attack on Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar soon after assembly election results for five states are announced early next week, starting with a weeklong campaign against the state government's "appeasement" politics. Party MLAs and former ministers in the JD(U)-BJP coalition government in the state will hold meetings at block headquarters across the state from December 16 reviving its "soft on terror" charge against the JD-U government, based on the bomb blasts at Narendra Modi's Patna rally in October.

RAJGIR: After two days of relentless attacks on him by Narendra Modi and his party, Nitish Kumar struck back, comparing the Gujarat CM with Adolf Hitler and saying that the BJP prime ministerial candidate's dreams of unfurling the national flag from the Red Fort would remain unfulfilled. Ridiculing Modi for the language used against him at BJP's Hunkar rally on Sunday, the Bihar chief minister said this was the trait of fascists. "They will crush all voices of dissent and democracy," Kumar told his party JD (United)

PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said the JD(U) would take a call in October on joining an alliance or going alone in the Lok Sabha elections , but his party would participate in the rally organised by the Left parties in Delhi later this month. Kumar was evasive on the possibility of a tie-up with Congress which was seen reaching out to JD(U) after it parted ways with BJP. "I have already said right now we are busy with our party programme at grass root level...we will take a call on an alliance or to go alone in the 2014 polls at our party convention at the end of October," he told reporters emerging from a "Janata ke Darbar mein Mukhya Mantri" programme.

PATNA: JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav has dubbed Nitish Kumar , chief minister of Bihar and Lalu Prasad, Kumar's predecessor, as leaders who could not rise above caste politics, a statement which comes as a huge embarrassment for the ruling party in the thick of elections. Blaming himself for patronizing leaders like Kumar and Prasad, Sharad said both became chief ministers due to his blessings but unfortunately they could not think beyond caste based politics. "I seek apology from you all for anointing Lalu Prasad as the chief minister.

NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday poured cold water on the Congress hopes of a post-poll disintegration of the BJP-JD(U) ties. The chief minister described Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit's statement that the JD(U) could align with the Congress after the polls as a fanciful claim. "The JD(U) is part of the NDA government in Bihar. We are part of an alliance at the Centre. LK Advani is the prime ministerial candidate and we will work for making the BJP leader the next head of the government," Mr Kumar said.

NEW DELHI: Mr Sharad Yadav , who entertained exaggerated notions about his importance in the Janata Dal(U), must be a chastened man now. After Bihar CM Nitish Kumar sent out a clear signal that policy decisions will be taken by him and not at Mr Yadav's Delhi residence, the NDA convenor's position has weakened considerably. Mr Yadav, who expected the Bihar chief minister to operate on the old "quota within quota" template on the women's bill, had virtually become the spokesman of the Yadav leaders on the issue.

The end of a road is not always the beginning of another, especially in Bihar where even the highways connecting the holiest of sites like Bodh Gaya and Rajgir are nothing more than one pothole followed by another! They may have improved under the highway-renovation schemes launched by the previous national government and continued by the present one. However, it is not just the vehicles which lose their way on Bihar's potholed highways but also the funding to improve the roads.